


We'll Always Have Paris

by AndreaLyn



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Gen, Past Misadventures, Post-Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:40:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25878325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaLyn/pseuds/AndreaLyn
Summary: It turns out that there are certain countries that Andy and her team don't (aka,can't) visit due to varying reasons. Thanks to a map in a safehouse, Nile learns about some of them.
Comments: 48
Kudos: 383





	We'll Always Have Paris

**Author's Note:**

> Endless thanks to [Rai](https://alexmanes.tumblr.com/) for making the beautiful map graphic on this one. Originally filled on tumblr as a prompt!

Copley insists that he’s going to need at least two weeks to clean up the mess in London. They’re under strict instructions to stay quiet and stay _close_. 

Andy looks at Joe and Nicky, and then says, “Ardlui,” like it’s supposed to mean something. Nile isn’t sure if that’s a language or a person, but a train ride later (along with one tiny rental car), they’re pulling up to a little shack in the Scottish highlands.

The house looks like it’s falling down, but Nile guesses that when you’re lying low, you try to make it seem like you’re nowhere to be found. “Welcome to the Scottish Highlands,” Joe welcomes, pulling their luggage out of the trunk. “Word of advice, if you’re planning to go walking the moors, try not to die of exposure.”

Nicky grimaces as he passes as he takes the bags inside. “One time,” he mutters under his breath, the words barely audible. “It was one time.”

Andy’s smirking. “Joe called him Jane Eyre for weeks,” she shares, which means the incident must have happened in the last few centuries. 

The town sits at the top of Loch Lomond and probably has a lot to look at, but this house doesn’t seem like one of those things. Still, where else is she going to go? She follows after Andy, bracing for the worst, and beyond grateful not to find it. Inside, it doesn’t look half as abandoned and Nile stops worrying about what it will be like to get infected and heal tetanus. “When’s the last time you guys were here?” she asks, setting down her duffel. 

Andy and Joe exchange a look, while Nicky keeps bringing the bags to the two bedrooms. “The nineties?” Joe guesses. “We make sure some of the houses are still in livable condition by paying locals to come in and keep it tidy. The safe houses don’t have anything we worry too much about.”

Nile nods, taking it all in, and wanders towards a big oak round table in the middle of the main hallway. There are pieces of paper curling up at the edges, and when she gets closer to try and tamp them down with a book, she blinks in surprise at her find. 

It’s a map of Europe, done by hand. It’s _beautiful_ , with great care given to the lines of the map. It takes her a second to realize she’s not alone and when she looks up, sees Joe standing at her side. He’s beaming like a proud father and Nile taps on the charcoal etchings around certain countries, giving his regularly-graphite-stained fingertips a suspicious look.

“This is yours, isn’t it?”

“It is,” he boasts. 

“Joe is an excellent cartographer,” Nicky praises through the open door to the bedroom, obviously not _that_ mad about the gentle roasting he got.

It really is amazing, something that Nile would’ve loved to hang on her wall at home. It’s clear he’s had to redraw boundaries and country lines, but there’s one other thing that’s very strange about this map.

“She found the map, huh?” Andy asks, bending down to open a cabinet, digging out a bottle of whiskey. 

“Why are all these X’s on certain countries?” Nile asks warily. Slovakia, Finland, Moldova, Monaco, and Iceland have hurried black X marks drawn on them. 

Andy exchanges a look with Joe and Nicky, almost amused and weirdly proud. “You think you get to be as old as we are and not end up banned from a couple of countries? Booker did the best he could with new identification, but as technology progressed, we ran into some really dicey trouble. The ones on there are no-go’s for another fifty years,” she says. 

“Sometimes, world politics helps,” Nicky adds, brightly. “It was a good day when Czechoslovakia split. We could return to Prague again, since it’s only Slovakia that was not happy with us.” 

Nile gives Nicky a wary look. “What did you do there?”

“We helped a small group of students with their protests and managed to get ourselves prominently featured in the paper. They got Nicky’s nose horribly wrong in the sketch,” Joe confides. “They thought we were the ringleaders.”

“We were,” Nicky boasts. “The protests did their job, I’m very proud.”

“Monaco?” Nile asks warily.

“Equal responsibility on that one,” Joe says, smirking at Andy. 

“They cheat in casinos,” Andy says as she takes a swig of liquor, “and I should be left out of it.”

“She seduced Princess Grace,” Nicky informs Nile.

“I absolutely did _not_ seduce anyone,” Andy counters. “She came to _me_.”

“Seduced,” Joe vows. “Booker got us into trouble at the tables by getting a little too belligerent when they asked us to leave because I was counting cards. He’d been drinking some excellent wine, but I think he was also just spoiling for a fight, even though I was absolutely guilty.” 

Nile narrows her eyes at him.

“I wanted to buy Nicky some beautiful new clothes,” is Joe’s response, which is not a denial. 

Nile pinches the bridge of her nose, not sure what stories might be behind the other counties on the map, though if Monaco and Slovakia are any indication, she’s beginning to get the feeling that the ‘lay low’ rule is in place for a reason, if only to allow them back into certain places. Nile taps her fingers on the map a few times, taking it all in. She’s somehow not surprised there are a few countries that won’t let them in (legally) anymore, though it’s good information for her.

“Shit,” Nile scoffs. “I’m weirdly proud of you guys. The way I’ve seen your missions go, I would’ve thought there’d be a lot more countries on this list.”

That sets them off. It’s clear that Andy is passionate about defending the fact that London was not a _typical_ mission and Joe and Nicky get into a heated defense about the fact that some things are unavoidable and their clean-up is far from perfect, but that they’ve improved on it over the years. 

Still, there’s one good thing about this map. 

Now she knows that if the others are ever getting on her nerves and she needs an escape, there’s always Reykjavik. 


End file.
